Ernestine to FBI: Pay Your Damn Phone Bills!Tommi Avicolli-Meccabyline‚ Jan. 17‚ 2008Ernestine, the take-no-crap telephone operator, would be thrilled to read this recent news item from the Associated Press: “Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.” At issue are over 450 unpaid bills for wiretap operations in five field offices (which of course are not identified). One of those offices ran up a total of $66,000 in snooping services. Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that his audit of the agency found “late payments (that) have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence.” |